


After

by magnificentbanes



Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: M/M, just some mother/son heart to heart, with bonus zimbits fluff at the end
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-08
Updated: 2018-06-08
Packaged: 2019-05-19 16:16:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,370
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14877155
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/magnificentbanes/pseuds/magnificentbanes
Summary: As soon as Bitty is off the ice, his heart racing and pulse pounding in his ears, Jack’s hand grasped tightly in his own, his phone rings. He knows without looking at it that the screen is going to show “Mama” complete with a heart emoji and a picture of his mother’s smiling face. Jack looks at him, silently asking if he’s going to answer it, and Bitty shakes his head, letting it ring to voicemail.Later. But not now.- or -Bitty just kissed jack in front of the whole world. He doesn't know what to do next.





	After

**Author's Note:**

> I know everyone and their mother has written a reaction to the aftermath of The Kiss, but this has been stuck in my head for a few days and I just had to let it out. It's my first Check, Please! story, so I hope I did everyone justice.

As soon as Bitty is off the ice, his heart racing and pulse pounding in his ears, Jack’s hand grasped tightly in his own, his phone rings. He knows without looking at it that the screen is going to show “Mama” complete with a heart emoji and a picture of his mother’s smiling face. Jack looks at him, silently asking if he’s going to answer it, and Bitty shakes his head, letting it ring to voicemail.

Later. But not now.

Now, he’s being swept into a bone crushing hug by Alicia Zimmermann and Bitty hugs her back just as tightly. If he can’t have his own mother right now, Jack’s is the next best thing. Behind him, he can hear Jack and Bob having a conversation in rapid Quebecois that Bitty wouldn’t have been able to follow even if he spoke the language. But he hears his own name more than once, so he gets the gist.

At least Bob doesn’t sound angry.

After Alicia releases him, Bitty barely has a second to breathe before he’s wrapped up in Bob’s tight embrace. “It’s gonna be okay, kid,” he says, low enough for only Bitty to hear. And Bitty knows that, come hell or high water, Bob and George and the Falconers are going to make this okay.

If only they could help him with his parents.

When they leave the rink what feels like hours later, Bitty dares a glance at his phone. He has dozens of text messages from his mother and even more missed calls.

There are none from his father.

Bitty swipes the notifications away and powers his phone off. He knows that there’s going to be a wild party at Jack’s apartment when they get back and he would rather deal with that and forget reality in the bottom of a red solo cup than think about what’s happening in Madison, Georgia.

It helps. A little.

Bitty goes to bed staring at the black screen of his phone, resisting the urge to power it back on.

Later. But not now.

Bitty wakes around midday to a pounding headache, an empty bed, and an apartment full of hockey bros (plus one Lardo). He notices the note that Jack left for him on the bathroom mirror, saying that he had to go do press, but to not worry about him, he would be fine.

Bitty doesn’t miss the postscript urging him to call his mother.

Sighing, Bitty wanders back into the bedroom and powers his phone back on, the device feeling like it weighs two tons in his hand. Never in his life had he been so anxious to hold a cell phone or to dial his mother’s number.

“Dicky?” He hates how frantic she sounds - even through it all, Bitty hates making her worry.

“Hey, Mama.”

“I’ve been trying to call you all night. I’ve been positively sick with worry.”

“I know, Mama. I’m sorry, I just. I didn’t know how to tell you.”

“Tell me what, baby?”

Bitty takes a deep breath, preparing himself to say the words he’s been dreading to say to either of his parents since he finally admitted his feelings to himself. “I’m gay.” From there, it’s like a floodgate opens and he can’t stop talking. “I’m gay, Mama and Jack is my boyfriend and I’m in love with him and I was so  _ scared  _ to tell you and I’m so sorry.”

The line was so quiet, Bitty feared that his mother had hung up. Eventually, though, she said, “Why were you scared?” Her voice was soft, sad.

“Because I didn’t know how you’d react. My whole life you and Coach have tried to make me something I’m not and I was scared to show you the real me.”

“Oh, Dicky. I’m so sorry I made you feel that way. You know your father and I will love you no matter what.” Bitty was relieved that she had added “your father” because as much as he dreaded his mother’s reaction, he was downright terrified of his father’s. “Who else knows?”

“Well, now I guess the whole world,” he says with a light laugh that contradicts the tightness in his chest. “But before that, it was our friends and some of Jack’s team and um.” Here he pauses. He doesn’t know how to tell her that Jack’s parents had known for a long time. He doesn’t want her to feel like he trusts them more than he trusts her because that’s just not true. But he’s also done lying to her. “And Jack’s parents.”

“And are they...okay with it?” is all she says.

“Everyone has been very supportive, yes. No word yet on how the rest of the world is going to react. I’m scared to turn on the TV.” He tries to pass it off as a joke, but deep down he truly was terrified. If his mother saw through his bullshit, she didn’t comment on it. “Mama, please be honest with me. Are you okay with this?”

“It’s gonna take some getting used to, I won’t lie. But I love you and Lord knows I love Jack and I just want you to be happy.”

“Thanks, Mama.” Bitty wipes his tears away on the edge of Jack’s t-shirt he was wearing.

“Your daddy and I are gonna have to make a trip up north, get away from this Georgia heat for a little while.” Bitty’s heart soars. His parents still loved him, even if they weren’t entirely comfortable with his sexuality just yet. “You just tell us when and we’ll be there.”

“How about I tell y’all when Jack’s Cup Day is and y’all can come up then.”

He can practically hear his mother’s smile when she says, “Oh, your daddy’s gonna have an honest to goodness heart attack when I tell him he gets to meet all those Falconers.”

“I’m sure they’ll love him. They’re good guys.”

There was another silence, but this one was comfortable. All Bitty felt was relief. “Dicky?”

“Yes, Mama?”

“Is Jack good to you? Does he. Does he treat you right?”

“Yes, Mama, he does.”

“And you said you love him.” This time it wasn’t a question.

Bitty answers anyway. “More than anything.”

“Then I’m glad.” Bitty smiles then grimaces when the motion sets his headache off again. “Well, baby, I gotta go. I’ll tell your daddy to call you when he gets home. And tell that boy of yours I say congratulations.”

“I will. I love you, Mama.”

“I love you, too, Dicky.”

Bitty hangs up the phone, gets out of bed, ready for ibuprofen and shaking awake a dozen or so hockey players to make them clean up the mess they made of his house. He knows nothing is really fixed yet and maybe they’ll never be exactly the way they were, but maybe it was time for a new reality. A better one.

Jack doesn’t get home until extremely late when it’s just Bitty left and his headache is long gone. “How’d it go, sweetpea?”

“About as well as expected. I’m sure you’ll see it as soon as you get on the Internet.” Bitty doesn’t say that he’s not planning on checking the Internet for a good while. “What about you? Did you talk to your parents?”

“I talked to Mama.”

“And?”

“And she said it’s gonna take some getting used to but that she loves me and wants me to be happy.” Then, because he only just remembers, “Oh, and she said to tell you congratulations.”

“That’s great, bud.” Jack pulls him into a sweeping hug and kisses the top of his head. “You were worried for nothing.”

“Well, now, let’s not count our chickens before they hatch. I still haven’t talked to Coach yet.”

“When you do, I’ll be right by your side. If you want me to, of course.”

“There’s no one else in the world I would have by my side.”

“I love you, bud.”

“I love you, too, honey.”

And when Jack kissed him, Bitty felt like everything was right in the world. It didn’t matter what happened when he eventually talked to his father, as long as Jack had his back, he could conquer anything.

**Author's Note:**

> come find me on tumblr: bramloiusgreenfeld!


End file.
